The Duke Nukem movie seems to be moving ahead, and John Cena might star

So there’s apparently a Duke Nukem movie in development over at Paramount. And it looks like they might’ve found their star in wrestler John Cena.

The Duke is back. Again.

I’m not sure what to say about this.

Duke Nukem 3D was a monster hit when it released in the ’90s. The game has been ported to almost as many platforms as Doom has, and retains a mighty following even now.

That fanbase wasn’t diminished all that much, even in the face of the bomb that was Duke Nukem Forever. If you somehow don’t recall, that was the last game that the Duke starred in. It was a monumental critical and retail flop, and didn’t exactly succeed in booting the main man back up for a new generation.

That’s one of the reasons I’m a little perplexed by this movie effort. It seems like Duke’s not all that viable these days. Presence aside, another issue is the hyper-sensitive, PC culture we’re currently in the midst of. Duke is the explosive opposite of that, so it’ll be interesting to see how he’s handled on-screen. If he’s toned down too much, then that aforementioned fanbase might not be all that enthused.

But regardless of all that, we have this week’s news.

The Hollywood reporter is… reporting that Paramount and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes production house has been talking with John Cena about Duke. Cena is a professional wrestler and was a huge presence in the WWE.

Though he’s still around there, he’s been working on an acting career as well. Actually, speaking of Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Cena will appear in the upcoming Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. Bay is involved with the Transformers movie universe in a very big way of course.

So it kind of makes sense that he’d be talking with Cena about Duke Nukem since they already have a working relationship. And, let’s be honest, Cena does kind of look the part. I mean, Duke sort of has to be a big jacked up guy. It’s kind of his gimmick. Well, that and the whole “not PC” thing.

Sit tight Duke fans, if there’s more to report on this one, we’ll bring it to you as it hits. In the meantime, you an read more at the link below.

Source: Hollywood Reporter